Chapter 3 Alicia's Frustration

I was so deep in thought trying to plan out where to run, how to run and everything that I didn't notice Jenny slip her hand from mine and lay down. I snapped out of my thoughts due to the cold that had wafted in with the night and found her asleep beside me, with something that looked like a tear running down her cheek. Was she crying?What happened?Maybe everything was just too much for her, I thought as I lay on her. The rest of the girls crawled over later to lie beside us as we made our group pile in the cold.

The next day was full of anticipation and fear of what was to come, even when the Warden came to drop our food, we just slowly took it as we ate. This time he brought a keg of water, which we drank and shared amongst ourselves. He raised an eyebrow at the action but shrugged and sauntered off, murmuring about how fucked up the inspector was. We just stared at each other as we waited for the day to get darker, the sound of the Inspector shouting about how underfed the dogs were, entering our ears.

Then we heard footsteps, one sounded just like the Warden while the other was softer and somehow heavier than the Warden's. The Inspector came into view as he stood in front of our cell, he was a big man with a bald head, wearing a grey uniform but with a black badge at his breast pocket. He stood towering over the Warden, as he asked; "Have they been fed?".

"Yes sir. They have been fed."

"And what about water?"

"Yes sir, they have been given water."

The Inspector nodded slightly and stared at us with a serious face, but his eyes softened after he looked at our clothes. It hardened again the next second before he stormed out of the building while shaking his head.

The inspector never took long in the camp, after today he would be leaving the next day, leaving the soldiers to continue their days of debauchery. I shook my head too as I thought about that, the inspector might seem different from those men but he was still the same. If he really wanted to, he could have stopped this and saved us, but instead he left us to suffer and gave us looks of pity which turned my stomach upside down. I detested people like him, or rather I think I hated all men, only my younger brother made me have a tiny hope that not all of them were monsters. Because I didn't wish for my younger brother to become a monster like them.

The wait was killing me and I could hardly think straight, so I walked over to Jenny, who sat in the corner staring at the hole in the ceiling.

"Are you ready for tonight?", I asked her as I sat down by her side.

"Nope." She replied as she continued to look at the ceiling. I sighed as I registered her reply, who would actually be ready to risk their lives on a plan that could go wrong at any moment.

"Me too, but I'm tired of staying here and waiting for the next person to die, or being treated like an animal."

Jenny turned to me and studied my face as she said, " and what makes you think that leaving this place would stop that?, that you wouldn't be raped out there or trampled upon?, this world was made for men and I really don't see the difference between the world and here. It's all a shit show."

I looked at Jenny like she was a new creature, how could she say that?No matter how bad it was outside, it was far better than being caged like an animal. Even though my past wasn't the best, I'd still pick to be at home than here.

Jenny just stared back at me with an indifferent look as she continued, "even before I was thrown here, I had up work and she locked me in a room with 3 men on my 16th birthday."

The words I wanted to say died in my throat, I knew all of this as she had told me before of her childhood. She lived in the slumps of a city with her mother, who made her start having sex by the age of 16 for food. She later ran away from home with the little she had saved up, but she was scammed and made to live on the streets in a small town. She was later taken by a gang and shared amongst them - for food, the gang was raided by the soldiers and she was carried as a slave. I knew there were parts she left out from her story, but she always never told me and I just took what I got. But not anymore.

"That might be true, but after we leave this place, we will go far away and maybe get a job and live together. No men, no harassment"

Jenny scoffed in reply, looking at the girls, then lowered her voice as she asked me "If I told you not to run away tonight, would you listen to me?". The words hit me like a truck, what did she mean?, I hit her in the shoulder as I glared at her;

"Stop thinking of stupid things and get ready for tonight" I said as I stood up and walked away. Jenny wasn't helping my situation and had even made things worse, I should have known she would say something like this. I sat at another wall, my mind in disarray before I dozed off.